Wire rope particularly useful for independent wire rope core



Jan. 3, 1967 F BElGHLEY 3,295,310

WIRE ROPE PARTICULARLY USEFUL FOR INDEPENDENT WIRE ROPE CORE Filed March27, 1964 5 Sheets-Sheet l V\ NFMTIM [71/71 I NVENTOR.

Jan. 3, 1967 A. F. BEIGHLEY 3,295,310

W ROPE PARTICULARLY USEFUL FOR INDEPENDENT WIRE ROPE CORE Filed March27, 1964 5 Sheets-Sheet 5 INVENTOR United States Patent 3,295,310 WIREROPE PARTICULARLY USEFUL FOR INDEPENDENT WERE ROPE CORE Arthur F.Beighley, Wiiliamsport, Pa, assignor, by mesne assignments, toIiethiehern Steel Corporation, a corporation of Delaware Filed Mar. 27,1964, Ser. No. 355,323 4 Claims. (Cl. 57145) This invention is directedto an improvement in Wire ropes and to a method for making the same.

An object of this invention is to produce a wire rope particularlyuseful as an independent wire rope core having an outer surface with abearing area greater than that of an ordinary rope.

A further object of this invention is to produce a Wire ropeparticularly useful as an independent wire rope core comprising a wirecore strand and plurality of centerless outer wire strands flattenedabout the core strand.

A further object of this invention is to produce a wire rope comprisinga core strand, a first layer of centerless wire strands flattened aboutthe wire core strand, and a second layer of centerless wire strandsflattened about the first layer.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide a method offabricating a wire rope having an increased outer bearing surface byproviding a series of centerless wire strands and a core strand, layingthe centerless strands about the core strand in evenly spacedrelationship and passing the resulting rope through a compactingarrangement to flatten the centerless strands about the central corestrand.

It is a still further object of the present invention to provide a wirerope with an independent wire rope core in which the rope has moreuseful strength than heretofore.

It is a still further object of this invention to produce a wire ropewith improved non-rotating characteristics or torque balance under load.

Other objects will be apparent from the following description and fromthe drawings, in which FIGURE 1 shows a cross-section of a six wirecenterless outer strand suitable for use in producing the rope of myinvention;

FIG. 2 shows a cross-section of a central seven wire core strandsuitable for use in producing the rope of my invention;

FIG. 3 shows a diagrammatic elevation of one means for producing therope of this invention;

FIG. 4 shows a cross-section of one embodiment of this invention beforeflattening the centerless outer stra'nds around the wire core strand;

FIG. 5 shows a cross-section of the same embodiment of this inventionafter flattening the centerless outer strands around the wire corestrand.

FIG. 6 shows an elevation of the outer flattened surface of anindependent wire rope core made according to one embodiment of theinvention;

FIG. 7 shows an elevation of a Wire rope with an independent wire ropecore formed according to the present invention;

FIG. 8 shows an elevation of a non-rotating wire rope formed accordingto the present invention;

FIG. 9 shows a cross-section of the wire rope embodiment of thisinvention shown in FIGURE 7;

FIG. 10 shows a cross-section of the non-rotating wire rope shown inFIGURE 8.

A wire rope 11 embodying the present invention and particularly suitablefor use as an independent wire rope core, hereinafter referred to by thecommon industry abbreviation IWRC, may be fabricated as shown in FIG-URE 3, wherein six six-Wire centerless strands 13, which have beenfabricated in the normal manner upon a conventional stranding machinebut without the inclusion of the normal center wire, are laid around aseven wire core strand 15. Wire core strand 15 as shown in FIGS. 2 and 4is composed of wires 25 larger than the wires 14 of the outer centerlessstrands 13. However, core strand 15 may, if desired, be formed of adifferent number of wires, for example nineteen wires, or twelve wiresover a fiber core or alternately even a small conventional independentwire rope core.

The six centerless outer strands 13 and wire core strand 15 are pulledfirst through a rotating lay plate 17, through a floating outer strandspacing guide 19 and then through a stationary first forming die 21 toform centerless strands 13 and core strand 15 into a temporary laid-upwire rope section 23 in which the siX outer centerless strands 13 areevenly supported upon the six outer wires 25 of core strand 15 in spacedrelationship to each other. In order to maintain outer strands 13 inproper spaced relationship to each other until acted upon by compressionmeans, a second strand spacing guide 27 may be located beyond stationaryfirst forming die Z1v Centerless strands 13 are laid around core strand15 in the same direction as they are stranded so that a lang laytemporary wire rope section 23 is formed. After passing through spacingguide 27, rope section 23 with its outer centerless strands 13 evenlyspaced about central strand 15 is passed through pairs of rotatingsqueezer rolls 29, 3t and 31, 32 arranged in different planes. In FIGURE3 squeezer roll 32 is obscured by roll 31. Rolls 29, 30 and 31, 32compress outer centerless strands 13 into a flattened form 33 about thesurface of core strand 15 to form the finished rope 11 shown incross-section in FIGURE 5.

As used herein with respect to the outer strands of the rope, the wordflattened refers to the configuration of the strands themselves, and notto the configuration of the individual wires comprising the strands. Therollers 29, 311 and 31, 32 by which the flattening is accomplished arenot intended to, and do not, materially deform the individual wires, butmerely deform the outer strands themselves from a circular to asubstantially flattened cross-section, this being made possible by thefact that the outer strands are initially formed centerless.

Finished rope 11 has a smaller diameter than temporary laid-up wire ropesection 23 as may be :seen by comparing FEGURES 4 and 5, and when usedas an IWRC the flattened outer strands 33 provide a large bearingsurface for the outer strands of the wire rope.

FIG. 5 is a somewhat idealized view of the finished rope or IWRC withthe flattened outer strands 33 cut in one particular section. Flattenedouter strands 33 cut in another section may appear to assume a form inwhich three wires of an outer strand overlie three other wires of thesame strand. Cut in other sections outer strands 33 will appear toassume other intermediate forms as a result of their progressiverotation. In actual practice, the outer strands may also tend to bedisplaced from a position directly over the core wires 25.

As shown in FIG. 6 the outer strands are of lang lay. Lang lay strandsprovide longer individual dwell times of the individual wires of thestrands in the bearing surface of the IWRC as described hereafter andcompress more easily but regular lay strands may be desirable in certainapplications. Although the centerless outer strands 13 are shown ascomposed of six wires each, the number of wires in each outer strand maybe varied. Six wires have been found to be particularly suitable,however, since six wire centerless strands are conveniently made andmaintain their shape until compressed. Furthermore, the number of outerstrands 13 may be varied if desired.

FIGS. 7 and 9 disclose another embodiment of the present invention,comprising wire rope 35 fabricated by laying outer strands 37 about IWRC11 in the normal manner. IWRC 11 is the increased bearing surface IWRCmade according to the present invention. The outer strands are preventedfrom cutting into IWRC 11 by the increased surface contact area of IWRC11 available to support strands 37. The IWRC is consequently not scoredand caused to disintegrate by the cutting action of the outside strandsand the useful life of the rope during which the full strength of therope is developed is consequently very considerably lengthened.

The centerless strands 33 of IWRC 11 in FIGURES 7 and 9 are of lang lay.The outer strands 37 may be either regular lay or lang lay.

As an alternative (not illustrated) to the construction shown in FIGS. 7and 9, the outer strands 37 may themselves be made centerless and may beflattened around the flattened strands 33.

FIGURES 8 and disclose a non-rotating rope 39 embodying the presentinvention. The rope comprises a plurality of centerless strands 41flattened around an IWRC 11, said IWRC 11 in turn consisting of aplurality of centerless strands 33 flattened around a wire core strand15. The rope 39 differs from the rope of FIG. 9 in that the lay of theouter strands 41 is opposite to the lay of the flattened strands 33 ofthe IWRC. The lay of the outer strands of the IWRC 11 is arranged to beshorter than the lay of the outer strands 41 to compensate for theeffect of the increased number of strands in the outer layers.

The cutting of the IWRC wires by the outer strands is particularly acutein the usual non-rotating rope since the outer layer of strands crossthe strands of the IWRC at a more acute angle. Consequently the life ofthe IWRCs of such ropes are very abbreviated and as soon as theintegrity of the IWRC is broken the rope as a whole will, of course, nolonger be non-rotating. In the nonrotating rope of FIGURES 8 and 10,wear is decreased by not only using a flattened IWRC but also byflattening the outer strands of the rope.

It will be noted in FIGURE 6 that completed rope or IWRC 11 has adistinctive surface pattern in which each outer wire 43 rises abruptlyto the outer surface of the rope and then is maintained continuously asan integral part of the surface for an interval of approximatelyonethird of one lay of the outer flattened strand 33 or in other wordsapproximately one-third of the way around the surface of the rope beforedisappearing relatively abruptly away from the surface of the rope. Forinstance, in FIGURE 6 outer Wire 45 is seen to rise to the surface ofthe IWRC 11 at point 47 and stay or dwell in the surface until a point49 is reached when it quickly passes to the back of the strand 45 nextto the core strand 15. This long dwell time of each wire in the outersurface can be compared with the mere fraction of a lay in which theouter wires of a conventional outer strand of a conventional wire ropeor IWRC stay in the direct surface contact area of the rope. It is thislong surface dwell of each individual wire in the rope of the presentinvention which provides the particularly effective bearing surface ofthe rope when used as an IWRC.

The manner of compaction of the strands upon the surface of the ropealso tends to lock the strands partially in position so that the ropeitself has improved non-rotating properties which are equal or superiorto regular lay ropes and clearly superior to the rotational propertiesof lang lay ropes.

The instant method of forming increased bearing surface IWRC and rope byflattening the outer centerless spaced strands of a temporarily laid-upwire rope section is very much faster and convenient than any previousmethod of forming specially shaped rope. By the present method flattenedIWRCs and flattened wire rope may be formed at a rate equal to the rateof production of ordinary wire rope. The present invention has thus madethe use of increased bearing surface IWRCs and flattened wire ropepractical in applications where specially formed ropes and IRWCs havenot previously been usable because of the unavailability of largeamounts of suitable IWRCs. IWRCs of this nature, for instance, have notpreviously been practical for use in ordinary wire ropes. Furthermore,since the IWRC of the present invention is disintegration resistant as aresult of its increased bearing surface, its use in a conventional wirerope adds greatly to the useful life of the rope.

While a preferred embodiment of the present invention has beendescribed, certain changes may be made under particular circumstances.As pointed out above, a greater number of Wires may be contained in thecore strand of the rope. Likewise the outer centerless strands may beformed from a different number of wires than shown although a six wirecenterless strand has been found most suitable. Different number ofstrands having various lays of different length and direction may alsobe used. Stationary dies rather than squeezer or compaction rolls may beused to compress the outer strands of the rope.

While the present invention has been described hereinabove inconsiderable detail, it should not be understood that it is to benarrowly limited to the exact and specific particulars disclosed and/ordescribed as such substitutions, modifications or equivalents as areincluded within the scope and spirit of the invention or pointed out inthe appended claims are also included.

I claim:

1. An IWRC comprising:

(a) a helically laid seven-wire core strand,

(b) six six-wire centerless outer strands helically laid around saidcore strand and flattened thereagainst,

(c) the diameters of the wires of said outer strands being smaller thanthe diameters of the wires of the core strand,

(d) the outer strands having substantially the same lay as the corestrand, and

(e) the outer strands being of lang lay construction.

2. A wire rope comprising:

(a) a helically laid wire core strand,

(b) a plurality of centerless wire strands helically laid around andflattened against the core strand,

(c) the lay length of the centerless strands being substantially thesame as the lay length of the core strand, and

(d) a plurality of round wire strands helically laid around saidcenterless wire strands.

3. A wire rope having an increased useful strength comprising:

(a) a non-distintegrating IWRC having a central stranded core and aseries of flattened centerless wire strands lang laid around the centralstranded core,

(b) the individual wires of each flattened strand having a dwell time inthe direct bearing surface area of the outer flattened strands ofone-third or more of a complete lay of the outer strands, and

(c) a series of outer rope strands laid around the IWRC upon theflattened bearing surface thereof in the direction of lay of the IWRC.

4. A non-rotating wire rope comprising:

(a) a non-disintegrating IWRC having a central stranded core and aseries of flattened centerless wire strands lang laid around the centralstranded core,

(b) the individual wires of each flattened strand having a dwell time inthe direct bearing surface area of the outer flattened strands ofone-third or more of a complete lay of the outer strands, and

(c) a series of flattened centerless outer wire strands laid around theIWRC upon the flattened bearing surface thereof in the opposite laydirection from the lay of the IWRC.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 6 2,061,55911/1936 Brown et al. 57-153 2,503,987 4/1950 Anderson 57-138 2,779,1491/1957 Schuller 57166 X FOREIGN PATENTS 975,386 7/ 1945 Germany.1,003,097 2/ 1957 Germany.

1,588 of 1909 Great Britain. 6,909 of 1913 Great Britain.

10 FRANK J. COHEN, Primary Examiner.

STANLEY N. GILREATH, Examiner.

D. E. WATKINS, Assistant Examiner.

1. AN IWRC COMPRISING: (A) A HELICALLY LAID SEVEN-WIRE CORE STRAND, (B)SIX SIX-WIRE CENTERLESS OUTER STRANDS HELICALLY LAID AROUND SAID CORESTRAND AND FLATTENED THEREAGAINST, (C) THE DIAMETERS OF THE WIRES OFSAID OUTER STRANDS BEING SMALLER THAN THE DIAMETERS OF THE WIRES OF THECORE STRAND, (D) THE OUTER STRANDS HAVING SUBSTANTIALLY THE SAME LAY ASTHE CORE STRAND, AND (E) THE OUTER STRANDS BEING OF LANG LAYCONSTRUCTION.